METRO DIGEST

Published: January 14, 1993

MISSING GIRL IS FOUND

Katie Beers, the 10-year-old Long Island girl who had been missing for two weeks, was found alive and well, hidden in a small room beneath a garage at the home of the Bayshore, L.I., man who had claimed he was with her when she disappeared. A1. NEW YORK CITY JUDGE CRITICIZES PLEA-DEAL POLICY

A new policy against plea bargaining in the Bronx has begun to burden the borough's court system, increasing the usual caseload and swelling an already huge backlog of felony cases, the Bronx's top judge, Burton B. Roberts, said. But the Bronx District Attorney, Robert T. Johnson, disagreed. B2. 2 BROTHERS DIE IN MURDER-SUICIDE A Brooklyn man killed his younger brother, who was suffering with cancer, and then placed a plastic bag over his head and killed himself, the police said. The bodies were found in the brothers' home in Midwood, Brooklyn. B2. SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM APPROVED The Board of Education voted to give parents throughout New York City the right to choose any city public school for their children, space permitting, creating one of the largest school-choice programs in the country. B3. AN ACQUITTAL IN POLITICIAN'S SLAYING A retired jail supervisor was acquitted of charges that he murdered Vander L. Beatty, a former State Senator from Brooklyn whose career had collapsed in corruption scandals. B3. REGION CITY MOURNS SLAIN MARINE The first United States serviceman killed in Somalia had moved to a bleak low-rise housing project in Elizabeth, N.J., from Puerto Rico as a teen-ager. Though Pfc. Domingo Arroyo spent more time on military bases than in this city, it has closed ranks around his grieving family. A6. A COMMON DENOMINATOR ON ELLIS ISLAND Seymour Rexite, a Yiddish actor, and C. Lawrence Huerta, the former chief of the Pasquayaqui Indian tribe, have but one thing in common: Mr. Rexite and Mr. Huerta are both listed on the new American Immigrant Wall of Honor on Ellis Island. B3. BISHOPS NEUTRAL ON LIFE-SUPPORT BILL A Cuomo administration bill that would allow family members and friends to terminate life support for terminally ill patients received a boost when a Roman Catholic bishop suggested at an Albany hearing that the state's Catholic bishops would not explicitly oppose the legislation. B4. NEW CAMPUS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE In another attempt to jump-start economically depressed Bridgeport, Conn., Governor Weicker announced that a community college on the east side of the city would move to a new $23 million campus in the heart of downtown. B4. JUDGE WON'T DISMISS SEX CHARGES The judge in the Glen Ridge sex assault trial in Newark refused to dismiss any of the nine charges against four former football teammates accused of sexually assaulting a mildly retarded schoolmate in March 1989. B5. DESEGREGATION EXPERT TESTIFIES A desegregation expert's court testimony in West Hartford made clear how Governor Weicker's plan compared with the aim of a lawsuit seeking to link Hartford's schools with those in surrounding districts. B6. Neediest Cases B3 Chronicle B9

Diagram: "Inactive Retirement" Chart of people over 65 years old who say that they do not participate in physical activity, for exercise or recreation in U.S. and N.Y.S. for period 1986 to 1990. (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral Risk Factor Survey)